Friday, March 27, 2009

Happy Friday! It's the last full day of Spring Break around here and I'm about ready to take off for the day and live it up to the fullest before we head back home tomorrow.

But first, I'd like to introduce you to today's FREEBIE FRIDAY guest, author Liz Funk. Liz is a self-professed recovering Supergirl, i.e. "a girl who believes that in order to be happy, she must excel at her job or career, have the best grades, wear the coolest clothes, date the best-looking boy, and have the perfect body size."

In her new book, SUPERGIRLS SPEAK OUT, Liz follows five other Supergirls and discusses how their need for perfection in all things dominates their lives. She offers advice on recovering from their 'overzealous tendencies and habits' in a voice that Booklist calls "honest, urgent."

I must confess that I am a stranger to this phenomena. I'm too disorganized and mellow to get around to being an effective Supergirl and I don't understand the kind of drive that would make a girl let herself be miserable just so she could be all things to everybody. Apparently it's a very common affliction, though, especially with the kind of pressure girls are facing now. So to see what makes a Supergirl tick...

What inspired you to write Supergirls Speak Out?Honestly, I wrote "Supergirls Speak Out" because I had to. I observedso many young people around me in high school and college who wereconsumed by the pressure to succeed... and often we'd see a "perfectgirl" in the community go on to have a mental breakdown or an eatingdisorder, and I wanted to really investigate why so many girls feltsuch pressure to try to be perfect and make doing everything lookeasy. It's interesting that so many girls intellectually know thatbeing perfect is impossible and they don't need to try to look asgorgeous as the women they see in the media, but emotionally, theystill want to adhere to these impossible standards.

When did you realize you were an overachiever?When I wrote the proposal for Supergirls, I saw myself as aworkaholic, but not necessarily a Supergirl. But upon listening to somany girls' stories and viewpoints, I realized that I too had adiseased relationship to not just working, but also my approach to myappearance, my relationships, and my goals.

Having identified the supergirl syndrome in your own life, do youstill feel the same pressure to succeed?Honestly, yes. As I mentioned earlier, one of the ironies of being aSupergirl is that you can intellectually know that you do enough andthat you're good enough, but you emotionally want to do more and bebetter.

What advice do you have for girls in middle school or high schoolwho think they have to do it all?I think that girls need to understand that they value and that theymatter for reasons outside what they look like, what they accomplish,and how others perceive them. They need to discover their intrinsicworth, and develop identities outside what their communities expectfrom them!

What excites you?A really great book. I read the same ten books over and over again;the children's book 'Eloise' is my favorite. I also love really sillyor cute movies, with Seth Rogen, Kate Husdon, and Anne Hathaway. Anda rainy day at a museum. That's probably the best the world has tooffer. Ha! The cool thing about recovering from being a Supergirl isthat you get more comfortable being eccentric.

What turns you off?Cell phones! I wish they'd never been invented--people are so rudewith them! Sometimes when I see people talking too loudly on flipphones, I have fantasies of grabbing their phone and smacking itagainst the nearest hard surface. I have a BlackBerry that I'madmittedly rather addicted to, but I'm always discreet with it andnever use it in movie theaters or at the dinner table or at parties.

If you could invite anyone you wanted - living or dead - to hangout with you at a weekend retreat, who would you invite and why?I would have loved to have met the feminist Betty Friedan. She wrotethe book the Feminine Mystique and she arguably started the secondwave of feminism in the 1960's. I think she would be so interestingto talk to!

What's one thing most people don't know about you?I love to paint! In my spare time, I make paintings on canvas withacrylic paints. They're rarely very good or even look like what I setout to paint, but I love doing it.

Milk Chocolate or Dark?Milk. I actually don't like dark chocolate at all! And I'm weirdabout my chocolate stuff; I don't like chocolate flavored things, likeice cream or cake. I just like the real thing!

Liz is offering a signed copy of SUPERGIRLS SPEAK OUT to one lucky FREEBIE FRIDAY reader. To be entered to win, leave a comment below telling me what you think about Supergirls. Are you a Supergirl? Do you envy them? Feel sorry for them? Know any personally?This contest will remain open until Tuesday.

P.S. I'll apologize right up front because I won't be around today or tomorrow to monitor or respond to your comments, so I'm trusting you to play nice and keep it PG. I'll be back Sunday to check in. Meanwhile, have a great weekend!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Greetings from beautiful Myrtle Beach. This has been such a great break so far, even though it's too chilly to go into the water much. Doesn't matter... I'm all about catching up on all the books I kept adding to my list while I was pushing for the deadline. Nothing like sitting on the beach (albeit in a sweater) with a Diet Coke and a pile of books. Ah. Heaven. : )

Congratulations to this week's Freebie Friday winner, who will receive a signed copy of GOING TOO FAR by Jennifer Echols:

xdaisyx

Please drop me a note at gerb(@)lindagerber(.)com with your mailing info and we'll get that sent out to you!

Meanwhile, I wish you all a spectacular week! I'll see you right back here on Friday for a FREEBIE with Liz Funk, author of SUPERGIRLS SPEAK OUT.

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO?All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far… and almost doesn’t make it back.John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won’t soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won’t be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge—and over…

And now, for the interview:What inspired you to write GOING TOO FAR?I love the TV shows COPS and RENO 911. I had an idea to write a romantic comedy about two teenagers stuck doing a ride-along with a cop. Then I thought the story would be a lot more interesting if the cop could actually be the hero or the heroine, rather than a bystander in the romance. I did some research and discovered some agencies hire 19-year-olds as cops, and voila. Then the novel turned dramatic on me, no longer a romantic comedy, and I decided not to call it back.

Are any of your characters based on real people that you know?Meg is my dark side, but I didn’t really base her on me. She just came out that way.

What excites you?A great book, movie, or TV show. My latest discovery is CASTLE, a TV show about a novelist.

What turns you off?Unhappy endings.

What's the biggest lie you ever told, and what happened as a result of the telling?I am not much of a liar. Not that I’m so upstanding and honest, but I figured out pretty early that I’m a terrible actress and will always get caught in a lie.

What's the most suspenseful thing that's happened to you in real life?Before I sold my first novel, I had several literary agents who said they wanted to call me to talk about representing me. We were in the process of moving, my husband had already moved to our new city, and I had stayed behind with our three-year-old. Every time the phone rang, I thought it might be a literary agent, but it was always a realtor wanting to show the house. Then the three-year-old and I managed to drop the phone in the bathtub.

It worked out okay.

If you could invite anyone you wanted - living or dead - to hang out with you at a weekend retreat, who would you invite and why?I would love to have a writer’s retreat and plotting party with Jane Austen, E. M. Forster, and Jennifer Crusie.

What's one thing most people don't know about you?I almost earned a PhD in English, but I never finished my dissertation on hypertext fiction. The degree didn’t seem important after I got a novel published.

What's your favorite quote?“Human beings have their great chance in the novel.”--E. M. Forster

Milk Chocolate or Dark?Cadbury Creme Eggs!

Jennifer has generously donated a copy of GOING TO FAR for this week's lucky FREEBIE FRIDAY winner. To be entered, leave a comment below, telling us either your plans for spring break, or your own real-life cop story. This contest will remain open until Tuesday, March 24th.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

First, GCC, TFC and Agency sister Lauren Baratz Logsted and her husband Greg will be hanging out in the Knight Agency chat room tomorrow night to talk about YA fiction. Here's the link to the TKA blog post that tells about the chat and here's the info so you can join us there!

What: Online Chat with Lauren Baratz-Logsted & Greg LogstedWhen: Thursday, March 19th @ 9pm ETWhere: The TKA Chat RoomHow Do You Chat: Visit the chat room here:http://client1.addonchat.com/sc.php?id=115545.Enter a username and password (this can be any combination). Your computer must be Java enabled to chat.

Next, it's Operation Teen Book Drop time again! Head on over to the Readergirlz blog to see how you can help spread the word - and win stuff!

TFC sister Lauren Baratz-Logsted and her husband Greg will be talking YA fiction at th TKA chatroom on Thursday. Check back here tomorrow for the full scoop!

And stay tuned for this week's FREEBIE FRIDAY with Jennifer Echols and your chance to win GONE TOO FAR.

Meanwhile, I'm pleased to give you our Wearin' o' the Green finalists. I do apologize - Blogger is being stoopid, so how this will work - please peek at the photobucket album to vote on your favorite picture. In the interest of anonymity, please send your votes to gerb(@)lindagerber(.)com. (Some of our teen panelists were concerned about their vote showing up in the comments section and since blogger is being weird today, my vote meter is not showing up. Nor are the photos uploading normally, which is why I have to use photobucket. Nor are the font or colors working. Blurg.)

Voting will remain open until Friday, and the winner announced right before Jennifer's interview.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Things to do on a Sunday evening while the guys are glued to Selection Sunday on the TV... I saw this on Justina Chen Hedley's blog and I had to make one myself. Thanks, Twitter followers! Do you see yourself in there?

P.S. Still time to enter KC Dyer's giveaway and to get your green on and send photos for the basket o' books freebie! See posts below.